Propylene Glycol

[Chroi23]

Can anyone tell me what exactly propylene glycol is and if it's a deal breaker. Sweet hubby fried up some pork belly for me and sprinkled it with some hickory smoked salt (less than 1/4 tsp)...but then i realized i hadn't read the ingredients before i ate it and it had propylene glycol in it. I don't generally eat something chemical sounding , especially if i don't know what it is...but when i googled it i came up with a whole bunch of different information. I tried looking through old posts to see if it had been asked already, but had no luck finding anything. Any guidance would be appreciated.

(edited for content)

[Andrea D.]

Definitely a no-no. It's a food additive but also used in anti-freeze!

[Susan W]

Here's what i do..if it's hard to pronounce, I just choose something else.

[Tom Denham]

The Wikipedia article is helpful. Quoting Wikipedia, "The acute oral toxicity of propylene glycol is very low, and large quantities are required to cause perceptible health damage in humans..." So it is used as a food additive. However, the standards of the Whole30 are higher than that of the Food and Drug Administration. If large quantities damage health, no quantity is acceptable. I mean really! What about imperceptible health damage? The aches and pains and irritations our society accepts as normal that we know is not normal!

[jhmomi]

Here's what i do..if it's hard to pronounce, I just choose something else.

Unfortunately your trick won't work for me - I was a Chemistry major in college and then worked in the Chemical industry in research and then sales for many, many years. I can pronounce all the nasty chemicals quite easily!

Tom - even something as benign as salt or water can be deadly in extreme cases... But I wholeheartedly agree, avoid anything that raises your eyebrow when you read it on a label.

I was shocked a while back to see sodium triphosphate on the label for frozen shrimp at the grocery store. (The bagged, and the shrimp at the seafood counter too). And the "Value Chicken" line at Kroger has carageenan! WTH? It's super easy to find other brands without it once you start checking all the labels.

Best choice is a whole food with no label. Second best is generally the label with the shortest list containing only recognizable "food" ingredients. The longer I read labels, the more good products I find to replace the old nasty ones.

[Robin Strathdee]

But just to clarify - you don't need to start over because of the seasoning. Just choose not to use it again :0)

[Susan W]

Unfortunately your trick won't work for me - I was a Chemistry major in college and then worked in the Chemical industry in research and then sales for many, many years. I can pronounce all the nasty chemicals quite easily!

Tom - even something as benign as salt or water can be deadly in extreme cases... But I wholeheartedly agree, avoid anything that raises your eyebrow when you read it on a label.

I was shocked a while back to see sodium triphosphate on the label for frozen shrimp at the grocery store. (The bagged, and the shrimp at the seafood counter too). And the "Value Chicken" line at Kroger has carageenan! WTH? It's super easy to find other brands without it once you start checking all the labels.

Best choice is a whole food with no label. Second best is generally the label with the shortest list containing only recognizable "food" ingredients. The longer I read labels, the more good products I find to replace the old nasty ones.

Chemistry major or not, you know what I mean about way too many vowels and consonants (english major here )

[Chroi23]

Thank you for the input everyone...i appreciate it